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Friday, 20 November 2015

How the Finns call their country

Suomi

25 May 2015 | From Petra of Finland

OFFICIAL POSTCROSSING

Suomi is Finland, The land of alcohol, trees, polar bears and metal. Suomi means "Finland" in Finnish language. The name Suomi (Finnish for "Finland") has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, meaning "land". In addition to the close relatives of Finnish (the Finnic languages), this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian. Alternatively, the Indo-European word *gʰm-on "man" (cf. Gothic guma, Latin homo) has been suggested, being borrowed as *ćoma. The word originally referred only to the province of Finland Proper, and later to the northern coast of Gulf of Finland, with northern regions such as Ostrobothnia still sometimes being excluded until later. Earlier theories suggested derivation from suomaa (fen land) or suoniemi (fen cape), and parallels between saame (Sami, a Finno-Ugric people in Lapland), and Häme (a province in the inland) were drawn, but these theories are now considered outdated.

Finland is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. Finland is part of the geographic region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia and parts of Russia.